V Has Come To: Demon Snake's Massacre
by SeththeGreat
Summary: Demon Snake, a monster of a man is brutally killing members of the Smash Bros roster left and right. He's not superhuman, but he's smart, cunning, and an elusive murderer...like some sort of Phantom. When the roster of over 50 warriors cannot handle this force of terror, they must turn to the man who can, the one they cast out. For Metroid-Killer's Heartlessness Contest.
1. In Media Res

**This is a contest entry for Metroid-Killer's Heartlessness Contest. In case you're not aware of it, the best way I can describe it is a homage to the slasher horror genre. One of the taglines is "mindless killing". I'm a huge fan of the slasher horror genre. Movies like Friday the 13** **th** **, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. You know, those movies that start with a group of teenagers and they're being pursued by a monstrous antagonistic force that kills them one by one until the last survivor kills him. So yeah, this story is going to be kind of like that so expect a LOT of over the top violence and gore. However it will be a little bit different from tradition. I was going to have the killer be a superhuman force like usual in the films. But then I thought "What if the killer was a mortal like his victims? But he's smart, cunning but brutally violent just like those movie killers." So I decided the killer would be Venom Snake, protagonist of MGSV: The Phantom Pain. The guy can be the most ruthless player character in MGS history and when he becomes Demon Snake, he looks terrifying. This chapter will explain who he is, why he's going to be killing the Smash roster, and why he's so powerful. But be forewarned.**

 **HEAVY MGSV SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU PLAN ON PLAYING THE GAME, I SUGGEST YOU DON'T READ THIS CHAPTER! THE OTHER CHAPTERS WILL NOT HAVE MAJOR SPOILERS!**

* * *

 **3 Weeks ago: Unknown Laboratory**

"Is he awake yet!?" A thunderous voice demanded answers.

"Almost sir! Just a few more minutes!" One of the scientists responded.

"Good!" The voice said sounding pleased. He looked at the subject in the Stasis pod. "Three months we've been working on this project gentlemen! And it's about to come to fruition."

"If you don't mind me asking sir…why did you pick this one as the subject? He just looks like an ordinary human to me." A scientist asked.

The voice let out a sinister laugh. "Yes he does doesn't he? But looks can be so deceiving. A human he may be, but ordinary? Far from it! Look at this man! The Shrapnel in his head, the bionic arm, the scars left on him from so many battles. This man is a veteran! A hardened warrior!"

The source of the voice stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to be Crazy Hand.

"And hardened warriors…is what the roster needs! Brother always thought he knew best! Believed that those colorful combatants of his were real warriors! Plumbers, Princesses, androgynous swordsmen, humanoid animals, pocket monsters?! What a joke! There was one man brother chose in the third tournament that met all the standards of a true fighter, and the community turned their back on him. And now he's gone. He was the black sheep of the roster. They said he didn't fit in, that he didn't belong! And you know what…they were right! He didn't belong. A soldier like Solid Snake doesn't belong in a group of fairy tale freaks that we have in the roster. So…I'll just have to erase that roster…create the new generation of Smash Brothers…and he will lead them! DEMON SNAKE!" Crazy Hand cheered to the skies.

"Subject is ready to be released!" A scientist reported.

"Excellent! Commence the release!" Crazy Hand ordered. "Gentlemen! **V HAS COME TO!** "

The soldier, Demon Snake, was released from his cryogenic sleep. He landed to the ground on his hands and knees gasping for air. His mind was blank, remembering very little of the events before being in this lab.

"It appears you have cheated death once again Demon Snake…or should I call you…Boss?" Crazy asked.

"Who are you…where am I?" Demon asked between his gasps. Crazy Hand motioned for two scientists to help Demon to his feet, to which they obliged. Demon looked up to see the floating hand, but he wasn't at all shocked to see such a thing. Crazy Hand laughed.

"Funny. Usually people scream when they first see me or my brother. But you've seen things much stranger in your life time, huh Boss?"

"My question." Demon reminded the hand.

"Of course! My apologies. Boss, you are a step closer to the Heaven you've always wanted."

"Outer Heaven?"

"That's right! A place where warriors like yourself always have a purpose! A place where conflict will never cease! I want it, too you see. Me and my men, who will help you to achieve it. Just like the Diamond Dogs, we'll follow your orders Boss."

Demon Snake looked around the room to see the hundreds of men that were saluting him. He grinned and looked to Crazy Hand, his new XO. "What's standing in our way?" Demon asked. Though he couldn't smile, Crazy Hand was absolutely thrilled that Demon was ready to get to work. He handed Demon a sheet that contained pictures of all the members of the roster.

"This group of false warriors. They think combat is a game…something to do for fun. Disgusting!" Crazy scoffed.

"So…I just need to eliminate them? That simple?"

"The world calls for wetwork…and you're the answer Boss. And when you kill them, make it a good one! Show them the true killer instinct! Show them how a demon of battle fights!"

Demon Snake laughed, the horn in his head grew slightly. He began looking more like a Demon.

"Consider it done."

* * *

 **Present Day: Snake's Home**

Since being kicked off the roster, Solid Snake has been living in a small house in the snowy mountains. He seldom contacted any of the fighters, only speaking with those he considered to be friends. As he ate his breakfast, he had a knock on the door. No one ever knocks on the door, because no one ever comes here. He walked to the door and opened it up to see who his surprise visitors were.

"Uh…hello there Snake." Rosalina nervously greeted. Behind her were some of the other fighters. Meta Knight, Lucario, Peach, Zelda and Fox. Snake observed the six of them. They all looked like hell, and the freezing weather wasn't helping.

"Come in." he simply said, opening the door and inviting them into his abode.

"What's going on?" Snake asked as he sat his guest down in his living room after getting them all beverages.

"Snake, tell us what you know about this man." Fox pleaded and handed Snake a photo. Snake looked at the picture with clear shock in his eyes. A man who he'd thought was dead, killed by his own hands. Blood covered his face, the eyepatch on his right eye, the shrapnel in his head that looked too much like the horn of demon.

"Demon Snake!"

"So you know him!" Peach said.

"I do. But why do you all know him?! What's going on?!"

"He showed up a week ago…and he's been killing us off." Peach said, horrible memories resurfacing.

"It's unbelievable! Such incredible power…but he's only a man! Yet he's been single-handedly taking down the roster, and there's over 50 of us!" Zelda expressed her disbelief.

"Demon Snake…or Venom Snake…is no ordinary man." Snake began.

"His appearance…isn't he your father? Big Boss?" Lucario asked.

"No…he's Big Boss' phantom…his body double."

"Body double?" Rosalina asked.

"1975, this man was a combat medic working for Big Boss' private mercenary nation. Boss considered him to be his best lieutenant. Boss was coming back to base on a helicopter, the medic was in there with him. They returned to see the base was under attack. They couldn't save it, and the attackers shot down Boss' helicopter with a rocket. The medic jumped in front of Boss, saving him from the damage of the explosion. Their helicopter crashed. Big Boss survived, and surprisingly, the medic did too. But they were both in a coma for nine years. The medic lost his left arm, and got a piece of metal lodged in his head. Big Boss and his friends realized that Boss was in danger, so they arranged a plan. They performed plastic surgery and made the medic look just like Big Boss, and they implanted the memories of Big Boss in his head so he would truly believe he was Big Boss. It worked. Boss was able to avoid his enemies. But when this man woke from that coma, he wasn't anything like Big Boss. He was a demon…Demon Snake."

"He must really be a demon! Cause we can't kill him!" Peach panicked.

"No! He's a mere mortal, like the rest of us. I wouldn't have been able to defeat him back in Outer Heaven if he wasn't."

"But have you seen what he can do? He has to have super powers!" Fox said.

"It's all technology…cutting edge. When you think about it, technology and magic are pretty similar. Tell me what you've seen, I've got an explanation for it. What has Demon Snake been doing?"

* * *

 **1 week ago: The Smash Arena**

Demon Snake approached the Smash Arena. Scouting the area, he found his first two targets. Wearing his Battle Dress, a Sneaking Suit modified with several pieces of armor, he was ready for heavy combat. Pulling out his pistol and knife, he then activated his stealth camouflage, rendering him practically invisible. The hunt was about to begin.

 **The violence starts next chapter. We're getting right into it.**

 **By the way, all that backstory about Demon Snake/Venom Snake/Punished "Venom" Snake whatever you want to call him...I did NOT make that up. That's all the actual game story. It's crazy…but it's not surprising if you've ever played a Metal Gear Solid game.**


	2. Five Down

**Happy Halloween everyone! Here's a chapter full of murder.**

* * *

Ness and Lucas were playing catch in a park just outside the arena. After playing for a few more minutes, they finished their game.

"That was fun Ness!" Lucas said.

"Yeah! We should get back to the arena. I'm just going to grab my bag real quick." Ness replied.

"Okay, sure thing!"

Ness picked up his backpack and caught back up with Lucas. As they walked, they both heard a strange, faint noise. Lucas looked to Ness in concern.

"Ness? Do you hear…beeping?"

"Yeah I-"

A button was clicked in the distance. An explosion went off from Ness' bag, blowing Ness apart. Guts, gore and limbs flew in several directions. The explosion caught Lucas, pushing him away. His left leg was blown off in the process. He screamed in terror upon seeing the sudden death of his dear friend, and mixed with the terror was agony from the pain of losing a limb. Demon Snake decloaked in front of Lucas, with a C4 Detonator in his hand. He put the detonator away and turned to Lucas, an evil grin on his face. Lucas was frightened at the man's horrific appearance. He was covered in blood…Ness' blood. Worse yet, the man was walking towards him. Lucas attempted to crawl away from him as he approached, but Demon easily caught up to him and slammed his foot onto the boys back. He flipped the boy onto his back so that he would be looking at him. Demon let out a sinister laugh.

"You're a psychic right? Hah! I've dealt with enough of those during my lifetime. And if I learned anything…" Demon stopped himself and stomped on Lucas' forehead. Lucas felt like his skull had been cracked. "It's that they're worthless without a brain."

Demon continued to stomp Lucas' head, turning his face into a bloody pulp. Demon switched his bionic arm to its blast arm function. He had his fun with the kid. Now it was time to finish him off. He punched the boy in the head, with the blast arm causing a small explosion on impact. Lucas' head was blown apart. All that was left was his headless corpse. Demon kicked the corpse away once he was finished. He heard a frightened shriek in the distance. He turned to the source, and saw a small man dressed like an astronaut. It was Olimar. Seeing he had been discovered, Olimar fled through some bushes. Demon was not willing to let him get away, and sprinted after him. After running through the bushes, he was in an area surrounded by trees. He couldn't see his target, but given the size of the area, he knew that he couldn't have escaped. He deduced that he must be hiding. Demon punched the ground, activating the sonar function of his bionic arm. This allowed him to detect any living beings nearby.

"There you are…" he whispered.

Olimar was hiding behind a tree. He was sweating bullets, with the thought of being detected lingering in his mind. He peeked his head out to see if his pursuer was there. He looked to see no one in sight. Believing he escaped the murderous man, he sighed in relief. However he was mistaken. He felt a strong hand grasp his throat and lift him off the ground. He was forced to look at his attacker face-to-face. Demon Snake tightened his grip around Olimar's throat and pinned him against the tree.

"You were smart to run, but you should've done it sooner." Demon said. Olimar was speechless, shuddering in fear. "So you're a member of the roster? I don't see any traits of a fighter in you. Oh that's right! It's because you're not a fighter! You get those little plants to fight your battles. They fight and die for you…like soldiers for a government. And just like a government, you see your soldiers as expendable. You make me sick." Demon scoffed. He impaled Olimar with his metal fist and disemboweled him as well. Olimar screamed, but it was somewhat suppressed in volume as he was being strangled. Demon shoved his fist back into Olimar's abdomen. He activated the shock function of his arm, allowing his fist to create electricity. He sent an electric current through Olimar's body, frying his internal organs. The man's eyes popped out of his body, and he ceased to scream. Demon felt no pulse from his victim, and tossed the corpse as if he was throwing trash.

"If they let people like him in the roster, than they must let anyone in. Pathetic! Hopefully I can find someone who will put up a fight." Demon thought to himself. He then heard a dog barking. He turned to see the Duck Hunt dog charging towards him. He smirked. The dog leaped at him, but was met with a boot to the head. The dog hit the ground but was not out of the fight. He quickly got back up and charged again. Demon pulled out his pistol and shot the dog in both of the hind legs. The dog whined as he lost the ability to walk. He was helpless as Demon approached him. The man kneeled down to the wounded animal.

"At least you tried." Demon smiled and pet the dog on the head. The smile disappeared to a look of fury as he snapped the dog's neck, killing him instantly. Pleased with his work, Demon checked to see if there was any prey to hunt. He looked around the park but couldn't find anyone. Suddenly he heard the sound of rapid footsteps. Someone was coming at him, and fast. He turned to see a young man with boxing gloves jump towards him. The boxer was Little Mac, who hit Demon in the face with a jolt haymaker. Demon surprisingly didn't get knocked off his feet, but he was forced back. He put a hand over his face, where pain was resonating. He smiled.

"Maybe this will be interesting!" He said.

"You murdering son of bitch!" Mac angrily shouted. He attacked Demon with a right hook, but Demon parried, blocking the attack and elbowed the boxer's head. Mac recovered quickly and attacked again. Demon dodged and kicked Mac in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Rising to his feet, Mac smashed his fist into his opponent's chest. Unfortunately for him, Demon's battle suit is armored with ceramic plating, hurting his hand upon the impact. Demon still felt the force of the punch however.

"You've got a hell of a punch kid."

"I don't need praise from a killer!" Mac scoffed.

"Maybe…but you need to be a killer if you want to win this fight." Demon advised. Mac readied himself to throw another punch. Demon decided he had enough fun with the kid and decided to no longer hold back. He caught Mac's hand and proceeded to break that arm. Mac screamed upon the bone breaking. Demon moved straight to the next arm and broke that limb.

"What good is boxer without his arms?" Demon taunted.

"How…how?" Mac muttered to himself in a state of disbelief.

"You weren't fighting with the intent to kill. You and your friends should know that you can't "defeat" men like me. You have to kill me." He lectured. He suddenly took out a machete and cut both of Mac's arms off, adding a fatal insult to injury. As Mac screamed to the skies, Demon pulled out his pistol and shoved the barrel into the man's open mouth. He squeezed the trigger and ended Mac's pain, along with his life. Demon looked around once more, and this time was sure that no one was around. He lit himself a cigar as he exited the park now littered with blood and bodies.

* * *

Shortly after Demon made his leave, several fighters arrived at the park site. They had ran over there from the arena after hearing an explosion.

"Oh god…" Mario gasped as he saw the gory sight. Five of their fellow fighters were now dead.

"They were kids…they were just KIDS GODDAMMIT!" Captain Falcon grieved over Lucas and Ness.

"I'm gonna look around. See if I can find anything that can give us an ID of the bastard that did this." Samus said.

"I'll help you." Fox said and followed her.

"Whoever did this…is someone with evil intent on par with myself when I was attempting to conquer the world." Ganondorf stated with his arms crossed.

"You really think so?" Link asked his once arch-enemy.

"I don't think…I know."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Marth chimed in.

"Was this some sort of assassination?" Pit asked Robin.

"No. Assassins are professionals. They make their kills precise and discreet. This is the work of a cold-blooded killer who wants boundless slaughter. He must've had fun killing them…and he wanted us to know it too." The tactician deduced.

"Samus! I found something!" Fox announced to her.

"What is it?"

"It's a cassette tape and I don't think it was left here on accident. I found it lodged in Little Mac's mouth."

"Alright. We'll listen to it back at the arena."

* * *

Later that day, the fighters, Master Hand and Crazy Hand had gathered in a conference room.

"Okay Fox, play the tape." Master Hand ordered. Fox opened a cassette player on the table and entered the tape. Pressing the play button, the tape began rolling.

" _I was told that the Super Smash Brothers was a group of fighters of only the highest caliber. I wanted to see it for myself. Your five friends that I "met" today…left me very disappointed."_ The voice said enraging many of the fighters. Master Hand made a "stop" gesture with his hand, not wanting any outburst so they can all hear the tape.

" _All of you must be wondering 'who the hell is this guy and why did he kill our friends?' right? Well I'll tell you. My name is Venom Snake, or Demon Snake, whichever you prefer. The reason I killed your friends is very simple. I did it for sport."_ Demon callously explained. A few of the fighters began cursing in anger.

"Quiet!" Master Hand sharply reminded them.

" _And believe me, it's not stopping with them. I plan to kill everyone on that roster! So why am I telling you this?"_ Demon rhetorically asked. He could be heard laughing a bit before speaking again. " _Well again, this is a sport and I love making things challenging. Your friends were completely ignorant of someone being out to kill them. Now all of you are not. Perhaps this way you'll do a little better than they did. Consider this a test…a test to see whether or not you're real warriors. Well I gotta get going now, but I'll be seeing you tomorrow. Until then…stay safe!"_ The killer jokingly said before ending the recording.

Everyone in the room was filled with dread. A maniac was out there, and he was hunting all of them for the sake of killing. Where would he strike next is what many of them wondered. Master Hand planned to get to the bottom of this, and warned everyone to be careful. Everyone was now ordered to be on the look-out for Demon Snake, and to kill him if necessary.

* * *

Crazy Hand returned to his secret lab after the meeting was over. Demon was there too, with the lab serving as his hideout.

"Did it work?" Demon asked Crazy. The hand began laughing maniacally.

"It did indeed! Everyone is in a state of panic! They've been ordered to be on alert."

"Excellent!" Demon smiled. "You're still sure about your brother right?" He asked.

"Rest assured, my brother will not personally intervene until things get dire. And when that happens, I'll kill him myself." Crazy answered.

"Good. Tomorrow, the real hunt begins."


	3. Urban Chaos

The fighters decided to actively search for their killer. It made them feel more at ease, feel more like hunters instead of being hunted. Though it didn't make the fear go away, it was just a slight boost of morale. Fighters gathered in groups and went to different locations, with the hopes that one of them would run into Demon Snake. Or he would run into them. A group decided to investigate at downtown Smashville. Though they believed that Demon wouldn't attack in a crowded urban environment, they decided that they could never be too sure. Mario, Luigi, Link, Toon Link, Pit, Palutena, Captain Falcon, Yoshi, Pikachu, and Jigglypuff made up this group, and they patrolled the city together. They were at the plaza, the center of the city.

"How will we know when we find him? We don't even know what he looks like." Pit said.

"I can't say for certain. I just think we'll know when we see him." Link answered.

"What makes you think that?" Pit asked.

"Just call it an inkling."

As they spoke, a man was watching them from the shadows, peeking from behind an alleyway. The man they didn't want watching them. Demon Snake.

" _I'm glad they decided to come to the city. Let's me know that they're thorough with their searches."_

Demon was wearing his parasite suit, which allowed him to emulate the abilities of the Parasite Unit, a group of elite soldiers with seemingly supernatural powers/ But it was actually high-tech bioweapons. How it worked exactly was not certain to Demon, all he needed to know was that it allowed him to turn invisible, get enhanced armor, and create a thick mist in the area around him. Right now he was going to use that third one.

A gunshot went off in the distance and the fighters jolted into their fighting stance, looking in the direction. The citizens around them were panicking and running, intending to evacuate the area.

"Did he kill someone?" Luigi wondered. Suddenly, the city became enveloped in a thick mist. Now they could only see the a few feet in front of them.

"What the hell?! Fog?" Falcon shouted.

"To answer your question, no I didn't kill anyone." A voice explained in the distance. They couldn't see who it was but they damn well knew who it was. They recognized the voice from the tape. "Shooting a bullet in the air is a quick way to clear a crowd that's all."

"Demon Snake!" Mario shouted in anger. "Show yourself!"

"What are you talking about? I'm right in front of you." Demon laughed. Demon covered his mouth until his scream and life force drained to nothing. Due to the mist, the rest of the group didn't see a thing. Luigi could barely make out Mario's outline and moved towards him.

"Bro? Are you okay?" Luigi asked and patted his brother on the shoulder. In response his brother's lifeless body fell to the ground, a huge hole in his chest. Luigi cried out his brother's name in anguish.

"LUIGI! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Toon Link shouted out. Suddenly something small hit him in the chest and fell to the ground. He reached to the ground and picked the object up…it was a human heart. "AAAAAAHHHH!" Toon Link panicked and tossed the heart away from him.

"TOON! You okay!" Link called being barely able to see the boy.

"I'm fine…but I think he killed somebody! I found a heart!"

Palutena grew furious with the mist hampering their vision. "ENOUGH OF THIS!" Palutena shouted and cast her magic. She used it to clear away the mist. What she and the others saw afterwards wasn't any better. Luigi was mourning over Mario's dead body, while Yoshi, Pikachu and Jigglypuff were dead on the ground, killed in horrible manners. Yoshi's head and limbs were cut off, while the Pokémon were cut right in half, their organs littered the ground. In front of them stood Demon Snake, a bloody machete in his hand.

"Impressive powers there." He smirked at the goddess.

"Kill him!" Link ordered. But as soon as the words left his mouth, they were all blinded by a stun grenade. After a few seconds, they regained sight. None of them were killed during that time but there was a new problem. There were now several Demon Snake's surrounding them.

"What is this?" Link thought aloud.

"Who cares? Kill all of them if we have to!" Captain Falcon yelled. Pit took aim and shot one of them, only for him to pop.

"Huh? A fake!" Pit realized. Falcon punched another, and it just swung back and forth. He grabbed it and realized what was going on.

"These things are just balloons! Decoys!"

"Stay back everyone!" Link ordered and stepped away from the group. He then performed a spin attack, creating a burst of energy that popped all the decoys.

"Enough mind games! Get over here and fight us! Are you scared or something?" Pit mocked. Demon revealed himself, landing on the ground in front of them seemingly out of nowhere. He was laughing.

"Scared? That's reach coming from you boy! Need I remind you that you're the ones that brought nine friends with you to fight one man?" Demon shot back. "More than anything, it seems that you're the ones afraid of me!"

Pit growled in embarrassment. Demon drew out his machete and pointed it at the group. "But you're right about one thing! I'm a little bored with mind games. Let's get serious!"

Demon dashed towards the group. He confronted Toon Link, Pit and Link. Despite three blades against one, Demon was holding his own extremely well. Between blocking sword blows, Demon would strike one of them with his fists or feet. He eventually broke it up, throwing Toon Link into Pit and Link, knocking all three of them down. Palutena targeted Demon with her Auto-Reticle attack. Demon stepped out of the way of three energy bolts flying towards him.

"What? Thought you'd get me off guard?" he taunted her. Luigi stood next to her and shot a fireball as she shot more magic. To their surprise, Demon simply smacked the projectiles with his prosthetic arm and deflected them with ease. He then closed the distance between him and his two opponents, knocking Palutena away with a dashing uppercut. He attempted to punch Luigi, but the plumber dodged and countered him, sweeping his legs from under him. Demon feel to the ground but rolled right back up before any of his opponents could follow up.

"Very nice!" He complimented Luigi. He sensed someone approaching from behind. He turned just in time to block Captain Falcon's knee attack. The force knocked Demon back a good distance. Falcon pulled out his pistol and aimed at Demon.

"Die freak!" He cursed and went to pull the trigger. Before he could, Demon pulled out a submachine gun and shot Falcon in the chest. Falcon screamed in pain as he fell to the ground.

"Falcon!" Luigi cried out, believing his friend to be dead. However, Falcon got up and clutched his wounded chest.

"What the hell?" He wondered as he noticed there was no blood from his wound. "That wasn't a bullet…"

"Rubber bullet actually. They don't kill, but they hurt like hell don't they?" Demon grinned.

Luigi came dashing at Demon, and used his Green Missile attack. Demon drew his weapon and shot Luigi out of the air with rubber bullets.

"FUCK!" Luigi swore in pain. Demon aimed the gun at Luigi, but was interrupted before he could fire again.

"Gotcha!" Toon Link cheered as he cut off Demon's left arm. Despite losing a limb, he didn't show any signs of pain, looking annoyed more than anything. Toon Link looked surprised. He expected a scream of agony and the killer cursing him out. "Shouldn't he be bleeding?" Toon noticed the lack of blood spewing from his stump arm.

Demon smiled evilly. "Fire…" he muttered. His severed arm, which was in fact his bionic arm, propelled like a rocket. The metal fist launched towards Toon Link and punched his head clean off.

"NOOOOO!" Link cried out. Demon laughed as he pulled out a spare bionic arm and attached it to himself.

"Shame really. If I hadn't lost an arm already, that would've been a devastating blow."

Pit drew his bow and shot an arrow of light at Demon. Demon used his arm to deflect the projectile, redirecting it into Palutena's chest.

"Lady Palutena!" Pit panicked as he saw the woman fall to the ground.

"Such a shame when we hurt the ones we love isn't it." Demon taunted. Pit charged at Demon, a blade in each hand. Demon activated the armor function of his parasite suit. As Pit got close, he attacked but was too late. Demon's body had become enveloped with rocky metallic armor. The blade recoiled in Pit's hand upon contact with the rock armor. Demon ripped Pit's weapons from his hands and shoved them through his chest. Pit collapsed to his knees and coughed up blood.

"STOP THIS!" Link hopelessly begged and shot an arrow at Demon. The killer caught the arrow in mid-air and shoved the tip into Pit's head, killing him and leaving Link's mouth agape in horror.

"Woah! |Watch the friendly fire there soldier!" Demon cracked up and kicked Pit's corpse away. Link drew his sword and sprinted towards his opponent. But unlike Pit, Demon didn't let him get close. He threw a Molotov cocktail onto Link, setting his clothes ablaze. Link took off running in pain, trying to put the fire out. Demon was about to follow up before he felt a Falcon Punch hit him in the back. It didn't harm him in the slightest, as the rock armor had took all the impact and broke Captain Falcon's hand. He then put Falcon into a chokehold. He saw Luigi was back up and running towards him.

"I need to borrow this." Demon said as he took Falcon's pistol from his holster. Demon emptied the clip onto Luigi's torso. He made each shot count…all fifteen of them. He was sure to hit non-vital areas. Luigi layed on the ground, 15 bullets hitting different areas of his body but still left him alive. Demon took out another Molotov and burned Luigi alive with it. Luigi could not get up to put out the flames and simply lied there burning. Demon kept Falcon in a chokehold during all of this and forced him to watch as his friend's flesh was burned from his body. He threw Falcon to the ground and took out a lever-action shotgun. He fired his first shot at Falcon's left leg, blowing it off. He cocked the gun and blew off his other leg.

"And one for the left arm!" Demon said as he shot aforementioned area. "And one for the right arm."

He pointed it towards Falcon's head, causing Falcon's heart to pound fiercely as he awaited the next shot…but it didn't come. "Hm? Am I out of ammo?" Demon thought.

"Get away from him!" a wounded Palutena ordered as she hobbled towards him. Demon pointed his shotgun at her and pulled the trigger, blasting the woman's brains out.

"Okay! Now I'm out of ammo! Sorry pal, you'll just have to bleed to death." Demon said before leaving Falcon to his horrible fate. He began to leave the city, thinking that he had eliminated all the targets. But then he thought back, and realized there was one kill he hadn't confirmed. He heard someone approach him with a sword, and he turned around with his machete in hand and blocked. It was Link.

"So you're still ticking?" Demon grinned.

Link looked like hell. Much of his shirt had been burned off, along with some burn wounds on his face and body. Despite this, he was still ready to give his all to fight. Link kicked his opponent in the gut and smashed the butt of his sword against his head. He then floored Demon with a roundhouse kick to the jaw. Demon got back up, laughing like a maniac.

"Why the fuck are you laughing?!" Link swore at him.

"Don't you get it!? I'm a warrior! I live for moments like these! I live for the fight!" Demon explained. He attacked Link with a series of strikes, eventually disarming Link from his sword. Link immediately went to relying on his fists and landed several punches to Demon's abdomen before hitting him with a right hook to the cheek.

"I didn't believe it at first. That you just killed the first five for the hell of it. I felt you had to have an ulterior motive. But I was wrong…you really are just doing this for the joy of killing." Link explained.

"So you understand?" Demon happily asked. He attempted to grab Link, but he broke out of the grab. Link grabbed Demon and threw him. Demon immediately rolled back to his feet.

"I understand. It's a poor excuse to kill people…but I get it."

"Regardless of what you think of the matter I'm just glad you understand."

Link swung his fist again, but Demon caught his hand and put him in a submission hold, eventually dislocating the arm. Link broke free of his grasp and stepped away.

Demon unexpectedly put down his fists. "I do hope we can fight again."

"What are you talking about!?"

Suddenly a tranquillizer dart hit Link in the head, putting him to sleep. Demon put away his tranquilizer pistol. "You've shown yourself to be a true warrior, young man. You get to live. Don't forget to tell your friends about me." He whispered to the sleeping Link. Demon left the area, leaving all the carnage in his wake.

* * *

Another group of fighters came shortly after and saw the carnage. They found the wounded Link among the blood and corpses. He was given medical attention, and woke up a few hours later. Two people were at his bedside.

"Zelda?" He asked. Zelda wrapped her arms around Link as he awoke.

"Link! Thank the goddesses you're alive!" she said with relief. Link looked to see his second visitor.

"Ganondorf? You're the last person I'd expect to visit me in the hospital." Link said.

Ganondorf quietly chuckled. "Well it may sound cliché, but the only one that's allowed to kill you is me. If you were to die here, then I'd be out for revenge." The King of Evil explained.

"Yeah sure! Or maybe you've got a soft spot for me somewhere in that heart of yours." Link grinned.

"Hmph! Think what you wish…" Ganondorf folded his arms.

"Link…do you remember what happened?" Zelda asked, moving to the more serious matter. Link's head went down and he frowned.

"Yeah…I do unfortunately."

"Good. Because we need to hear it." A booming voice said from the entrance to the hospital room. It was Master Hand, and with him were a small group of fighters. They gathered around Link. "I don't want to bother you, as you definitely need your rest. However we're going to need to do a debriefing of today's events."

"Of course." Link nodded in understanding.

Fox took out a notepad and asked the first question.

"What are we up against? Is this a beast, a robot, a cyborg?"

"No. As far as I can tell he was just a regular guy. A regular human."

"What? A human was capable of all that carnage we saw in the city?" Samus asked, thinking it to be impossible.

"I'm telling you! That's what I saw! He had no super powers…he was just really damn good at fighting. He's…damn I'm not sure how exactly to describe it…kind of like Snake."

"You mean Solid Snake?" Fox questioned.

"Right! Except evil. Almost demon levels of evil…" Link shuddered.

"Well he did introduce himself as Demon Snake. I wonder if there's a connection between them." Meta Knight thought.

"There's got to be! He looked a little like him. Except he's got an eyepatch on his right eye. Didn't Snake know someone like that?"

"His father…Big Boss!" Master Hand said in disbelief. "That's not possible! Big Boss is dead! Snake told me himself."

"Again I'm just telling you what I saw. He had an eyepatch, a prosthetic left arm and a piece of metal in his head that looks a lot like a demon's horn." Link explained.

"What? Snake never mentioned those last two things." Master Hand pondered.

"Well maybe you should go ask him about it." Link suggested.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Snake has been very bitter towards us ever since most of the roster voted him off and Master Hand kicked him out." Meta Knight explained in a passive aggressive tone.

"I didn't 'kick him out'! I had concerns about his presence in the roster and I saw that many of the fighters shared them…"

"Well you and those other fighters didn't know shit about him!" Falco angrily muttered.

"What was that?!" Master Hand shouted.

"I agree! Snake was a good man! There was no reason to kick him out!" Zelda spoke out as well.

"I never said he wasn't a good man, it had nothing to do with that…"

"ENOUGH!" Link shouted breaking up the argument. "Forget I said anything! Just know that you need to stop this monster at all cost! He lives and breathes violence. It's all he knows. The reason he's killing us is purely for the sake of killing. Not for money, fame or ideology. For sport!"

A grim silence filled the room after Link explained Demon's motives.

"Just tell me one thing," Fox broke the silence. "How the hell did you survive then?"

"Honestly, because he let me live. If he had thought otherwise, then I'd just be another part of his kill count."

"Let you survive? Why?"

"The guy seems to have a really perverse sense of honor. Apparently he was impressed with my fighting abilities, and I guess he rewards people for gaining his 'respect'. I didn't want it in the first place, but I got it. Before I passed out he said that he hopes that we would get to fight again someday. I hope so too, so that I can kill him!" Link said clenching his fist in anger.

"Well sorry to crush your hopes but we're going to kill him before you get out of this hospital." Samus said.

"I certainly hope so." Link responded.

"Alright. Thank you Link. We wish you a quick recovery." Master Hand waved goodbye.

"Wait!" Link stopped him.

"What is it?"

"There's one more thing I need to add. We didn't run into Demon. He found us. But it's strange…he was waiting there. Like he knew we would be going there."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you."

* * *

"Well done as always Boss!" Crazy Hand praised Demon.

"It's just what I do." Demon said with pride.

"Of course. Though I'd like to ask you something. I'm not questioning your judgement, but I'd like to know why you decided to spare Link. The swordsmen." Crazy Hand questioned.

Demon took a puff of his cigar and smiled. "His skills were impressive. I'd definitely would want him on board my nation of warriors."

"I certainly agree with you in regards of his combat capabilities but surely you must realize that Link will likely be opposed to the idea."

"Yeah I know that. And if he doesn't want to join up, then I'll just kill him. But if I do have to fight him to the death, I want it to be a damn good fight! I want him to be at 100 percent!"

"Understood sir. What are your plans for tomorrow?" Crazy asked.

"I'm thinking about going for a big hunt tomorrow! I won't stop at one group, I'm going to go for multiple." Demon said with excitement.

"Splendid! We'll have your gear ready to go. On top of that we managed to build you some new equipment today."

"Is that right? I can't wait to give them a try."


	4. The Warrior's Code

**Sorry it took so long…this one was a pain.**

* * *

The next morning, the Smash Bros received a letter from Demon Snake. The letter was a simple request. He revealed that he was waiting in the forest located west of the mansion. His request was that they send a team of fighters to do battle with him. If they didn't, then he would just start picking them off one-by-one. The fighters knew that they could be heading into a possible trap, but there really wasn't any better alternatives. Demon was actually being fair more than anything, allowing them to confront him instead of him getting the drop on them. A team was assembled. It consisted of Bowser, Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, Marth, Ike, Roy, Robin, Lucina, Wario, Mega Man, R.O.B., Dark Pit, Sonic and Greninja. They had dispatched and were walking down the forest path when suddenly…

" _I'm so glad that you accepted my request!"_ Demon's voice boomed through the forest through what seemed to be loud-speakers in the forest. It seemed that he could see them, but they couldn't see him. That was worrying. The fighters believed him to be close and readied themselves for battle.

"Show yourself!" Marth demanded with his sword in hand.

" _Calm down! I'm not near you."_ Demon assured.

"Then where are you?" Dark Pit asked angrily.

" _Just keeping moving forward, I'm about 10 minutes away."_

"Prove it!" Bowser demanded. His demand was met, as a flare lit up in the sky, being shot from the approximate position Demon claimed to be.

" _Satisfied?"_ Demon asked condescendingly. The fighter's sighed in frustration and went at ease, but still remain cautious. It seemed that they had no choice but to take his word for it, so they continued forward. They moved in silence, but Demon was feeling up to chat.

" _Hmm…Bowser. You look upset. I thought you'd be so thrilled knowing that Mario's dead now."_

Bowser tightened his fist in anger, keeping himself from losing it.

"You shut your mouth! Mario was a good man! You will pay for killing him, as well as the others." Robin claimed. Demon laughed over the loud speaker.

" _A good man?! Is that a joke?"_ He chuckled. _"Oh I see…you think he was a good man for all those times that he saved the princess right. That makes him a big damn hero right?"_ He rhetorically asked, his tone becoming much more serious.

" _Did any of you ever think about what he did on his way to saving the princess? The trail he left behind? A bloody trail littered with corpses of Goombas and Koopas, their craniums being crushed by Mario's boot. He enjoyed it…he fucking loved it! Laughing, cheering, saying "Yippee" and "Yahoo" as he crushed another skull. And how exactly did those Koopas and Goombas pose a threat towards Mario. Most of them didn't have weapons, all Mario needed to do was avoid touching them, something relatively easy given that all they really did was walk around. That didn't matter to him, they were in his way so he just killed them, because it was easier." Demon darkly explained. "At any point in his life, did Mario ever express guilt for all of those creatures he killed? No…he didn't…because he was a sociopath! He would kill them without batting an eye or thinking twice. He was a killer…kind of like me…"_

The fighters were feeling very unsettled by Demon's rant. " _They were your men Bowser! They died under your command. They died for your cause!"_

Bowser's heart began to race, sweat coming from his head.

" _Oh and what a noble cause they had to die for. The cause for King Bowser to get inside the Princess' pants!"_

The fighter's mouths were agape from the statement. Bowser continued to look furious and nervous at the same time.

" _You make me fucking sick Koopa King. You don't even care about your children. You have them serving on the front lines too."_ Demon said with clear disgust. " _I know why you're really angry about Mario's death. It's not that bullshit cliché of being robbed of the chance to kill him yourself. Cause the fact is you didn't want Mario to die. You needed him! For about two decades you both played a role. You were to be the tyrant that would kidnap the Princess, and he was the "hero" who would inevitably save her. Then the cycle would repeat itself. You became very good at that role too. But what now? Now there's no hero to save the princess! The cycle can no longer repeat itself! And that cycle…is all you've come to know. It's become your only purpose, but now it's gone. You're angry because without Mario…YOU. ARE. NOTHING."_

"RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Bowser roared with fury, breathing fire and punching a small crater in the ground.

"Bowser calm down! He's trying to get in your head!" Dedede said to the Koopa King.

"Well he did a damn good job!" Bowser admitted. "I'm going to FUCKING murder him!"

Though that conversation was finished, Demon still had plenty of more things to say.

" _KIRBY!"_ He shouted, taking the pink fighter by surprise. " _I can't put my finger on what kind of creature you are exactly. A balloon? A marshmallow? A puffball or an alien? Well it doesn't really matter either way. There is one thing I do know that you are. You're a monster, like me!" He claimed to the shock of everyone._

"You would compare Kirby to a murderer such as yourself?" Meta Knight questioned.

" _Not necessarily. There are different kinds of monsters, and Kirby is a special one. I maybe a murderer, but even I have some standards. I kill people the old fashioned way. Fists, blades, ballistics, explosives. You know, the basics. But Kirby…oh Kirby! He kills his foes by eating them alive! Taking their bodies, and their powers along with them!"_

Kirby began to show signs of anger, beginning to sweat as well.

" _I wonder how they must feel as they enter your stomach. They're still alive the whole way through. Or maybe they don't feel at all! After all you seem to have a hyperactive metabolism. When you eat somebody, they seem to skip going through any digestive track. I wouldn't be surprised if your stomach is just a black hole, pulling your victims into a void where they will never die! They'll cry for help, but they won't be heard. Their cries fall on deaf ears. Truly a fate worse than death. But that's alright! You were hungry! And what better meal to satisfy an appetite then a good ol' body and soul!"_ He seemed to chuckle as he finished.

" _Meta Knight! Dedede!"_ He called out. _"Can you tell me how many of your subordinates have been lost to that pink abomination?"_

The two simple remained silent, a grumble of frustration could be heard.

" _Too many to count, right?"_ Demon taunted. " _DEDEDE!"_

"Grr…what?" The penguin asked irritated.

" _I refuse to refer to you as a King because I know that's a title you just gave to yourself!"_ Demon said sounding angry himself. " _You certainly do a good job of representing the behavior of monarchs however, I will give you that much. Just like a king, you're selfish, greedy, and gluttonous. Maybe you don't have the megalomaniac tendencies of Bowser, but you've got your sins. I'll admit you've tried to make atone for them, breaking the Star Rod to protect the people from Nightmare…but those tendencies are still there!"_ Demon finished, his voice filled with spite.

"Everyone! Just ignore him!" Marth attempted to command the team.

" _Oh and I'm so pleased that the Fire Emblem Crew decided to come. You're all quite popular with the fans! They love to fantasize about you, making their own romantic stories about you!"_ Demon mocked. " _Tell me, did you five do a little grinding before coming? Get some good practice in before the "boss battle" as they call it?"_

"We don't know what you're talking about…" Lucina claimed.

" _Oh don't act so ignorant about it. I'm actually a little bit jealous of you five. I kill a lot of people during my time, but I never gain any power for doing so. But you…oh you! With every murder comes an increase in power. How great that feeling must be! To see those stats increase! Health points, Strength, Defense and so on! I have to go through rigorous training to enhance my abilities. But for you four it's as easy as killing some drifters in a forest."_ Demon cheerfully spoke.

"No! That's not…" Ike began.

" _Ike, don't feel the need to argue, especially since you know that I'm right."_

"Would you just stop talking?!" Mega Man shouted in anger.

" _Oh Mega Man, I was just about to get to you."_ Demon sinisterly chuckled. " _You really intrigue me. You're definitely one of the most advanced piece of technology I've ever seen. A self-aware robot. One that can feel emotions."_ He explained with admiration. "See I actually like you Mega Man. That's why it pains me to see you reduced to a pawn of another scientist."

Mega Man was perplexed, as Demon's feelings sounded very much genuine. "I'm no pawn! I make my own decisions!" The robot said in defiance.

" _I know you do, I know you can. Unfortunately the "decision" you've been making is the one that was planned for you. Cleaning up another scientist's mess…Dr. Light's mess. Wily may be the one who programed the Robot Masters into behaving the way you've come to know, but it was Light who came up with the idea of creating those robots. I'm sure you want to put a stop Dr. Wily's operation, but you don't need to be under Dr. Light's command. Neither does your sister."_

"Enough of this! I don't want to hear it!" Mega Man demanded.

" _Very well. You're getting close anyway. I'll speak to you all then."_ Demon said before the loudspeakers went silent. After a minute more of walking, they finally found him. It was a wide, flat area of the forest, with Demon Snake standing on a large stone circle in the middle of it, smoking a cigar. He was covered head to toe in blood, wearing his Sneaking Suit for this occasion.

"This place makes a nice battle arena don't you think?" He asked.

"Cut the shit! Why did you send us a letter? What's with the invitation?" Dark Pit interrogated.

"Good! Getting right to the point. I've invited you all here because I would like to make an offer for today's battle that can benefit both of us."

The fighters all looked at each other with confusion.

"I'm not satisfied with the way I've killed your friends. It leaves my power and skills to debate. I want to feel that when I kill someone that they'd at least had a fair chance. So my offer to you is this. Each of you will take a turn to fight me. It will be one-on-one. I won't have to use any tricks, no mist, no hiding. Just a fight to the death. This also gives you a chance to prove that the might Smash Bros don't need a large group to take down one person. What do you say?" Demon asked in offering.

The fighters all looked to each other, contemplating the offer. They silently nodded to each other, giving the go ahead to accept.

"Fine…" Marth coldly answered.

"Excellent!" Demon said and slammed his fist on the ground. The trees behind the fighters collapsed, leaving no exit in sight. They were taken back by the display of raw strength, but showed no signs of backing down. "Now who's first?"

Without any hesitation, Bowser stepped forward onto the large circle. He was still furious over Demon's earlier taunting.

"Someone's pretty excited aren't they?" Demon laughed. He snapped his fingers and a transparent barrier was created around the circle. "Just a precaution. We don't want any outside interference right?" He said and winked at Bowser. "Ready when you are King."

Bowser angrily charged towards the man and did his dash attack, a running dropkick. His opponent had easily stepped aside and kicked Bowser in the stomach. Bowser quickly recovered and swiped at his opponent with his claw. Demon dodged and performed a spinning back-fist to the Koopa's cheek. Bowser was reeling from the attack and Demon followed up by hitting him in the stomach with his knee, and then grabbing him by the spiked collar and throwing him across the ring, displaying a massive amount of strength.

"Welcome to the hell zone. You're really not going to enjoy your stay." Demon smiled evilly. Bowser rose to his feet, angry brewing from his face. He began blowing fire balls at Demon. The bloody man was surprisingly quick on his feet, dodging the projectiles with ease. Then unexpectedly he absorbed one of the fire balls with his prosthetic arm. He then shot the fireball back at Bowser, knocking him back.

"How the hell?" Bowser said in shock.

"Let's just say I got some new tech since yesterday." Demon grinned. He blasted several smaller projectiles at Bowser. Bowser was charging at him like a raging bull. The projectiles hit him, but did not halt his movement. He hit Demon with a charging headbutt, his first successful hit in the battle.

"You're a tough guy aren't you?" Demon mockingly asked as he got back up. "Little hits don't faze you. I guess I'll just have to hit harder!"

Bowser struck Demon with his large fists, but he did not fall down from the hit. Instead he struck back with a roundhouse kick to his chin. The Koopa threw two more punches but both of them missed their mark. Demon did a short hop in the air and struck Bowser in the chin once more, this time with his knee. He instantly followed up with a strong punch to the cranium, forcing Bowser to the ground on his stomach. Demon fiercely stomped his foot onto his downed opponent's head.

"Does this feel familiar?"

 _ **STOMP! STOMP!**_

"It's the same feeling your soldier's felt when they crossed paths with that plumber."

 _ **STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**_

Bowser's head was now dripping blood. He felt something crack. Demon then threw a knife at his hand, the blade penetrating his flesh. As he howled in pain, Demon stepped on the knife to drive it further in until it went through his hand entirely. He repeated this act with Bowser's other hand.

"By the way, I hope your kids are watching. Because this entire fight is being filmed live and on air!" He revealed like a showman, lights focusing on cameras around the arena. Attempting to get a second wind, Bowser breathed fire at Demon's feet. Demon didn't seem to be affected by it. "Fire doesn't work well against demons." He said and kicked Bowser in the face. He began dousing Bowser in gasoline. After he finished, he tossed the gas can aside, and lit a cigar and began smoking.

"I hate to make eight kids into orphans…but in this case I think they'll be better off without you. Any last words?" He asked. Bowser began to open his mouth to speak but before he knew it, Demon had already tossed his lit cigar on him, setting him ablaze. "Good choice of words." He smiled as Bowser screamed. In a few minutes, Bowser's corpse was burnt to a crisp, some areas of his body had burned enough to reveal his bones. Demon hurled the corpse off the arena, the other fighters simply remained silent as they saw the death of their fellow fighter.

"So! Who's ready for round two?"

Wario stepped onto the arena for the challenge. "Oh good! The paragon of greed, Wario!"

Wasting no time, Wario got onto his motorcycle and drove towards the killer. Demon immediately placed an anti-tank mine onto the ground and flipped out of the way. The bike made contact with the mine and was destroyed by the explosion, throwing Wario into the air. Demon pulled out a shotgun and began shooting at Wario as he helplessly fell mid-air. Wario landed on the ground, severely wounded. Demon walked up to him and wrapped a Fulton surface-to-air balloon around him. The balloon activated and began ascending into the air, taking Wario for the ride. Demon took out a sniper rifle and aimed up to the air, waiting for the perfect time to shoot. He was counting in his head how high Wario had risen. Then after Wario had reached the perfect distance from the ground, Demon pulled the trigger and popped the balloon, and Wario began descending. He was high enough that he was now falling at terminal velocity. He landed on the ground with thunderous slam. He was dead on impact, every bone in his body crushed, and a puddle of blood growing from his body.

"Get your shit together Smash Bros!" Demon yelled. R.O.B. chose to go next, standing across the demon of a man. "The last of his kind." Demon labeled the robot. He shot at the robot with his pistol, with R.O.B. deflecting the bullets with his arms. Robot shot his laser and hit Demon's leg, making him slightly grunt in pain. Robot rocketed towards him and punched him across the cheek. He spun his arms rapidly in the style of a tornado, creating a rapid succession of punches, but Demon was able to block every punch with his bionic arm. After the barrage ended, he countered with a powerful bionic punch to the robot's head. Taking out his pistol again he fired a few shot, this time a few made contact. Sparks emitted from the affected areas.

"Yes! The last survivor of your kind. But you're no victim. You stood by and watched as your brothers and sisters sacrificed themselves to those WMDs! Those Subspace bombs."

Robot angrily rushed towards Demon and threw a punch, but his opponent parried, punching him right in the eye with his bionic fist, cracking part of his visor. Demon grabbed Robot by the throat and slammed him headfirst to the ground, followed by a kick to the body.

"Have you truly atoned for your sins? After you switched sides, how much did you really help to fight against Subspace?" Demon continued questioning. He pulled out an assault rifle loaded with armor piercing bullets and fired at the robot. The bullets tore through varies parts of him. The robot seemed to collapse to the ground, attempting to get back up.

"Not capable of answering me huh? Well I guess the answers will have to die with you."

Demon pulled out a chaff grenade, a grenade that caused nearby technology to go haywire upon detonation. Pulling the pin he released it. After it went off, Robot started to shake uncontrollably. It began shooting lasers all over the place. After a minute, Robot just completely exploded into pieces. But unknowingly to Demon, the grenade also began to affect Mega Man. Mega Man lost control of himself and charged his Mega Buster. His mind was still there, but his body was in control.

"No! No! NO!" Mega Man cried out.

"What's wrong?" Ike asked. Demon also looked over, confused as to what was going on. Before everyone knew it, Mega Man shot Greninja with a fully charged blast, blowing his body to pieces, the blood splattered and got on the other fighters clothes. He aimed at Sonic and charged up the Buster.

"Mega Man! Stop!" Everyone begged. Luck for them, the chaff grenade's effects stop just in time, and Mega Man aimed away from Sonic just before the shot fired. Demon began to laugh.

"Oh that's right! I forgot it would affect you too." He shrugged. Mega Man shouted with fury and jumped into the arena, and began rapid fire with his Mega Buster. Demon took evasive actions, but every so often he found himself getting nicked by some of Mega Man's shots. Mega Man ceased fire with the Buster, and began throwing Metal Blades at Demon. He dodged one, then two, then he caught the third one and hurled it right back at Mega Man. Mega leaned back as if he was playing limbo, the Metal Blade grazed part of his helmet.

"Guess now's a good time to test this thing out." Demon thought to himself. He raised his bionic arm to the air and the hand retracted itself. The arm transformed into an arm cannon similar to Mega Man.

"Where is he getting all of this equipment?" Robin wondered.

"I've got friends in big places." Demon answered before firing at Mega Man. Mega Man activated his Leaf Shield to protect him from the bullets. As he fired at the robot, Demon began chucking frag grenades at him as well. The Leaf Shield could stop bullets, but not explosives. Mega Man dodged to the best of his ability, but he eventually got caught in one of the explosions. He was thrown back a good distance, but landed safely on his feet. Demon unexpectedly appeared behind Mega Man. He ducked just in time as Demon swung his machete, then countered with a slide attack. The two fighters got back to their feet, Mega Man hitting Demon with a half-charged shot. He stumbled back from the hit, and his bionic arm reverted back to its normal form. He pulled out a pistol and fired at the robot, who dodged each bullet with grace. Mega got closer to Demon with each dodge. He readied himself for a Mega Upper, but Demon landed a swift chop to his helmet. It didn't faze Mega, who performed the uppercut on his opponent, launching him into the air. But after he did that, his helmet split in two and fell off his head, exposing his skull.

"How did he-"Mega Man was cut off as a knife went into his skull, stabbing into the brain. Demon had thrown it while he was still in the air, an evil smile on his face. He landed back to the ground and sliced Mega Man's head off with his machete. He then unnecessarily slashed the severed head twice more, splitting it into four pieces, and then kicked the super fighting robot's body away.

"God dammit!" Ike cursed under his breath.

"Robin? How's it coming along?" Marth asked quietly.

"I've figured out a way to bust the barrier." Robin answered.

"What?" Meta Knight expressed surprise.

"Excellent. Everybody! On my mark, we all jump in the arena and we take him down." Marth ordered to the others.

"Marth with all due respect, I must strongly disagree with this plan." Meta Knight said.

"Why?"

"We made a deal with him when this started. He has kept his side of the deal, so I don't think we should break our end."

"What do you respect him all of a sudden?" Ike asked sounding irritated. Meta Knight scoffed in disgust.

"I despise this man, I can't believe you would think otherwise! However I respect the agreement we've made with him and I feel you all should as well. I'm afraid to see how he would react if we broke our agreement."

"Sorry Meta Knight, but we're proceeding with this plan." Marth said.

"Hmph. Do what you will, but I will not take part in this."

"Very well."

"Okay, so which one of you is next?"

"NOW!" Marth cried out. Robin casted a spell that broke the barrier, and the entire group, save for Meta Knight, leaped towards Demon all at once. Demon looked furious at seeing this attack. Their ambush would not go as they hoped, as four turrets appeared from the ground and shot the attacking fighters with beams of light. The beams froze all of them in mid-air, unable to move no matter how much they struggled.

" _Dammit! You fools! I knew this would happen!"_ Meta Knight thought with frustration.

"I offer you a deal…and you break it! I gave you a CHANCE!" Demon roared with fury, sending a shiver of fear down the spines of the frozen fighters. "Did you honestly think I didn't have something planned for this?" Demon turned to see Meta Knight remained on the sidelines, respecting the agreement. "At least one of you has a sense of honor." He then turned to the frozen fighters "As for all of you! You will die a coward's death!" He shouted and walked towards Robin. He hit him with his electric fist, sending a shock through his body. Then he lit his clothes on fire. He took out four knives. He stabbed one into his gut, one to the left arm, then to the right arm, and the final one he cut his jugular vein, causing blood to spill to the floor.

"NOOOOOO!" Lucina cried out. Demon looked over to her and smirked. Equipping a pistol, he aimed at her and landed 5 shots on her. One to each of her limbs, and then one to the chest. Demon dashed back with a flashy spin and threw a knife, going right into her forehead and penetrating the brain.

"Bullseye!" Hey cheered.

"You're a sick-"Roy tried to spit out until Demon slammed his fist to his face, knocking out some of his teeth. He took Roy's sword from him and slashed across his gut. He started digging Roy's organs from the gash. The red haired swordsmen weakly cried out as blood and viscera spilt from his body. Roy died from the massive blood loss, and Demon hurled his body aside. He moved to Kirby and Dedede. He had a fist full of Roy's organs in his hands. "I'm sure you two are hungry!" Demon demonically smiled. He began force feeding Kirby several of Roy's organs, much to everyone's disgust. Kirby tried to refuse, but Demon would not allow it.

"Now it's time for desert!" Demon cheered and pulled out a white phosphorus grenade. He pulled the pin and shoved it straight into Kirby's mouth. Kirby's insides began to suffer burning, unbearable pain from inside his body. His internal organs melted, his eyes popped out, along with other horrible pains. Kirby fell to the ground looking like a charred husk, with blood and other body fluids leaking out. For Dedede he had something much simpler. He stuck a grenade in his mouth, and forced Dedede to clutch it between his teeth. He pulled the pin out and a few seconds later, his head blew apart into several pieces. After finishing with them, only Dark Pit, Sonic, Marth and Ike remained. He walked over to the dark angel, who was still struggling to get free, and took his bow from him.

"You know I haven't used one of these in a while. I wonder how my archery skills are." He snickered and took several steps back and readied the bow. His first shot hit Dark Pit straight in the gut.

"No…not good enough." He muttered and shot another arrow, hitting Dark Pit in the heart. "Good…but could be better." Firing another shot he hit the angel straight in the head, killing him. He fired two more arrows to his head afterwards. "Just making sure that it wasn't luck." He said.

"Meta Knight! Help us!" Sonic cried out for help. Meta Knight closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "I'm sorry." Was all he could say, as he still refused to break the agreement. It may have seemed heartless, but it very much pained Meta Knight to just stand and watch his friends meet a gruesome fate. However he chose to abide by the warriors code, something he didn't expect anyone, aside from Demon Snake of all people to understand.

Demon pulled his machete out and cut Sonic's feet off, and released him from his binds, causing him to fall to the ground unable to stand. "C'mon and go fast you little shit!" Demon laughed at the hedgehog as he tried crawling away.

"Meta Knight…please!" The other three cried out. Demon turned to Meta Knight. "Yes Meta Knight, what are you going to do? Just know if you attack me, you are breaking our agreement."

Meta Knight removed his sword from its sheath. "I know…" He answered and dashed forward with great speed and seemingly vanished. Demon heard three slices, but none of them targeted him. He saw Meta Knight reappear, and noticed blood on his blade. He looked to the other three fighters to see they were decapitated.

"I see…mercy killings." Demon noted.

"Now it is just you and me. Let's finish this!" Meta Knight sternly said.

"You are a real warrior, Sir Knight. Let this battle be a great one." Demon said with surprising respect. Drawing his machete out, Demon charged towards Meta, with Meta doing the same. Their blades clashed, and continued to do so as they swung at each other. After exchanging attacks for a minute, Meta parried one of Demon's attacks and cut his right arm, landing the first successful hit. He attempted to follow up with a cut to the face but Demon dodged just in time. He kicked Meta back and slashed at him, but Meta used his cape to teleport behind Demon and land a slash across his back. Demon grunted in pain before quickly turning to punch Meta away. Demon realized that swordplay wasn't his strongest suit, and threw his machete at Meta, who easily avoided it. Demon expected this though, and it served as a distraction for him to get close and dropkick Meta. While Meta was on the ground, Demon tossed three throwing knives at him. Meta returned to his feet and swiped the knives away with his sword. Demon attempted to hit him with a dashing punch, but Meta sidestepped and landed a full Mach Tornado on him. Demon landed to the ground, reeling in pain from the attack but feeling very excited at the same time.

"Very impressive!" He complimented and rose to his feet. Meta flew towards him and swiped at him but Demon dodged and grabbed him by his cape, slamming him to the floor. Meta rolled to avoid being crushed by his opponents' boot. He slashed at Demon three times, but he blocked the attacks using his bionic arm. Then Demon attacked, throwing a fierce left cross, which Meta barely managed to duck under. Meta then grabbed Demon by the chest and flew up, then down and slammed Demon to the ground with massive force. Though it was a powerful attack, Demon recuperated faster than Meta Knight thought, and caught him by surprise with a leg sweep. Demon then slammed his bionic fist to the ground, creating a small quake around him that tossed Meta Knight to the skies. He threw a knife at his airborne opponent. The knife scraped his metal mask, leaving a scratch mark. Meta Knight spread out his cape which doubled as wings, and descended to Demon at high speed. He caught Demon off guard and thrusted his sword into his right shoulder. Demon hissed in response, feeling the pain. He grabbed Meta Knight's arm and broke it, then threw him away from him. Meta Knight landed on his feet, clutching his broken arm. They both were breathing heavily, Demon especially, who realized Meta Knight's sword was still lodged in his shoulder. Then the two sensed a group of people coming.

"No! No! Not now!" Meta Knight cursed.

"Did you call for back up?" Demon questioned.

"No."

"I see…They must've been watching the show and decided to get in on the action."

Samus arrived along with a whole group of fighters. She immediately opened fire on Demon. He created a barrier around himself, easily stopping all of her attacks.

"Just want to get right into it don't you?" Demon laughed.

"You shouldn't have come here!" Meta Knight yelled confusing the others.

"I refuse to be defeated in anything other than a one-on-one fight to the death, and it seems you all just interrupted ours." He then looked over to Samus. "Hey I know who you are! You're the **Metroid Killer**! I know that look in your eyes. You LOVE **violence** don't you?! The **blood** , the **gore** , the **mutilated corpses**. It's so cathartic to you isn't it? It may even be…erotic to you huh? You LOVE all the killing! Doing it, watching it, **reading it!** Nothing's more enjoyable than some good gore-porn right?" He went on a tangent greatly disturbing everyone.

"But anyway, Meta Knight! I enjoyed our battle. If only your friends hadn't so rudely interrupted it then we would continue. As for now…"

He tore Meta's sword out of his shoulder and threw it to its owner, landing at Meta Knight's feet.

"Farewell!" He said and suddenly disappeared after throwing a smoke bomb to the ground.

"Dammit!" Samus cursed looking all over for him with her arm cannon at the ready. She looked far and wide but there was no trace of him. He was gone. Then they all looked at the gruesome aftermath of today's battle. They had no idea what to say. But really…what was there to be said?


	5. Penultimate Showdown

**Present Day: Snake's House**

"You did the right thing Meta Knight." Snake said to him, referring to the mercy killing of his three comrades.

"The right thing?! He cut off Sonic, Ike and Marth's heads!" Peach shuddered, irritating Meta Knight.

"Yeah and you want to know the two other options? He could've attacked and got frozen himself, and then they all would've died. Or he could of just stood there and watch them all get brutally murdered. Would you have liked either of those to happen?" Snake grimly reminded and took a drink.

"I…guess you're right." Peach frowned.

"So Meta Knight…" He looked back to him. "After fighting him, and doing a pretty damn good job, what did you notice? Why did you think you succeeded where the others failed?"

Meta released a deep sigh before beginning to speak. "I didn't need to have Lucario's aura sensing abilities to know that man is powered with murderous intent. He loves the suffering of others, be it physically, emotionally, or psychologically. It powers him in a sense. That's why he was playing mind games with the others before the fight began. He wanted to instill some sort of negative emotions in them. Fear, anger, guilt, doubt…anything that a fighter shouldn't be feeling in the middle of combat, anything to cloud their judgement."

"But you didn't let that happen to you. Despite all the gruesome events that happened in front of you, you kept a level head, and made a tough decision when you needed to. I feel as though Demon made that "one-on-one" stipulation as a test, a test to see who could keep their emotions in check." Snake theorized.

"And when the others decided to attempted a group attack, they failed." Lucario mused. "He took that as a sign of fear, a sign of them being unconfident in their own abilities. Guess he was right in a sense."

"He said he refused to be defeated in anyway other than a one-on-one battle. I can't help but feel that really is the only way to beat him and I don't know why." Fox expressed his concern.

"Yeah I've been thinking about that too." Falco said. "Before we showed up Meta Knight was able to put his sword into that fucker's shoulder. But when we showed up, he was suddenly able to deflect everything Samus fired at him. How does he have that kind of power?"

Fox turned to Lucario and Zelda. "Hey, you two can read or sense other people's energy right? Did you guys feel anything? Any type of power."

Zelda sadly sighed. "We've both discussed about it and get the same reading. He doesn't exude any type of magic from what we could read. Just a horrifying amount of murderous intent."

"Then where are all these abilities coming from?" Rosalina pondered.

"So none of you have figured it out have you?" Snake shook his head and took a sip of his drink.

"What?" Falco asked.

"Did it ever occur to you that there's another player in this game? A player that's got some power, and something to gain from the deaths of all the fighters?"

"Somebody's helping him…" Meta Knight muttered.

"That's right. On the surface it may seem he's doing all this single-handedly, but not even the greatest of soldiers truly "work alone". I'm no exception." He explained. "And it's not just some random fellow, this is somebody who we know, who has a lot of power."

"You mean…" Peach began.

"One of the Hands." Snake finished.

"Ridiculous!" she snapped in defense.

"Think about it! Demon is someone who comes from my universe. And in my universe, he's dead and I was the one who killed him. Dead people can't find some way to transport into the Smash universe, and the only one who can open and close warpholes to different universes are the Hands. And as we know, the Hands are capable of giving the dead another chance to step into this mortal coil. They did it for Gray Fox."

"And for Andross…" Fox grimly realized along with Falco.

"And how else would he get the information that he has? Somebody has to be feeding it all to him. I refuse to believe that he just coincidentally ran into Link and his group in the city. He knew they were going there. And judging by that scuffle in the forest, he's also got full access to everyone's psyche profile."

"Good god." Peach gasped as the connection started getting clearer.

"And the reason he doesn't give off any power or energy? It's because it's not his. One of them helping him out from the shadows. Providing barriers, special weaponry. Does this really seem that far-fetched?" He finished. "And before you ask which one, do you really have to guess?" He threw out, obviously referring to Crazy Hand.

"That bastard!" Zelda hissed. The other fighters also expressed their anger.

"Well I guess now would the time to ask you what we came to ask. Snake, you've beaten him before. What do we have to do?" Rosalina questioned.

"Well you need to realize that when I fought him, I was fighting the man himself. Demon Snake is simple to kill, in that you can kill him like any other human being. But actually being able to land that killing blow on him is a hell of a task. So he's tough but not immortal." Snake answered. "But what we're facing now is Demon Snake backed by more or less a god. For that I say you can't beat him."

"Wait, really? So then we're fucked!" Falco panicked.

"Not necessarily." Lucario interrupted. "I think he's saying that if we can get Crazy out of the picture, then we can kill Demon."

"You say that like that's easy enough! Like Snake just said, the hands have the power of gods." Peach.

"Yes, both of them do. But remember Crazy is the enemy. Master is still at our side."

"If Master Hand is our "guardian" then why hasn't he killed Demon?" Falco asked.

"Master Hand has said that he will not intervene in situations that he believes are not above our power. But if we can convince him that his brother is involved the he will realize the severity of the situation and will deal with Crazy so we don't have to."

"Sounds like we have a plan then." Fox grinned.

"That's great." Snake said as he loaded up his pistol, geared up in his Sneaking Suit.

"Woah! What are you doing?" Zelda questioned.

"What does it look like? He's getting ready to fight. I don't even need to read his aura to figure that out." Lucario said.

"You'd risk your life for the people who exiled you? That's definitely something Snake would do." Meta Knight chuckled.

"They won't get to thank him or apologize though, most of those people are dead." Fox reminded them.

"What happened in the past doesn't matter. Demon Snake comes from my universe, and he being here will only result in death and destruction. It's my duty to stop him. I did it before, and I'll do it again." Snake stated.

"Duty? Who assigned this type of duty to you?" Rosalina asked.

"I did…" he answered. "Zelda? Can you teleport us there?"

"I can. Alright everyone! Gather around me!"

* * *

After the battle in the forest, most of the remaining fighters feared for their life and did not show up to the arena, going into hiding instead. However Samus was not one of them. She wanted to find this monster of a man and kill him, just like all the other monsters she'd faced during her career. Though she could not blame the others who made that decision. Given what he had done in the past few days, the most rational thing to do was hide. Many of them told her before they left that they hoped by refusing to come to the arena, Master Hand would have no choice but to step in and put a stop to the threat. It was another reasonable assumption, but Samus still did not want to take the chance. She didn't trust Master's sense of timing, and believed that if he decided to show up, it would already be too late. In fact as far as she was concerned, it already was too late. Over 25 fighters are dead, and the others are in panic. Hiding wouldn't make this problem go away, so here she was. Standing in the courtyard of the arena, confronting Demon Snake, who stood a couple yards away from her.

"I'm delighted that we finally get the chance to battle!" He said happily and got into his fighting stance. Samus said nothing and got into her fighting stance.

"So are we ready? Or do you need Adam to authorize this fight?"

Before he knew it, her knuckles landed fiercely against his cheek. Then she kicked him in the ribs, elbowed him in the chest, kicked his leg, a knee to the gut, and finished by smashing her arm cannon right into his face, knocking him on his back. He got back to his feet, a little bit of blood coming from his mouth. Though to her irritation, he still had that cocky grin on his face.

"I see. Let's get right into it then."

She shot her grapple beam at him. He dashed away from it and charged her, landing a series of body blows ending with a hip toss that put Samus on her back. She didn't pause, and immediately kicked her legs up at Demon, who blocked the strikes, but this gave her time to safely get back to her feet. She attacked with a series of strikes, all of which Demon avoided, but he didn't expect her to use the grapple beam. With him in her grasp, she pummeled him a few times before slamming his back to the ground. She attempted to follow up with that, but Demon got up and tackled her to the ground and began punching her in the head while he had her pinned. Luckily she was wearing her helmet and it took most of the damage for her, but now the visor was cracked and her vision was hampered. She managed to knock him off her by hitting him across the face with her arm cannon. She got back up and discarded her helmet. She was tired of just exchanging blows. She wasn't here for a good fight like him, she was here to kill him. She began firing at Demon with her arm cannon. Demon avoided all but one shot, taking an energy shot to the leg. He became disappointed.

"Well…if that's the way you want to do this…"

He quickly drew out his M1911 pistol and fired at Samus. A good amount of the shots made their mark, but Samus' suit protected her. However the ballistics were not harmless, and did damage her suit.

" _I can't just tank those bullets. My suit will get destroyed eventually. And God forbid he manages to land a headshot."_ She thought as she rolled away from following shots. Demon's clip went empty and he began to reload. Samus took that opportunity to launch a barrage of missiles at him. Demon quickly put another clip in, doing so just in time to shoot down the missiles. Samus however used the missiles as a distraction for her to move in and hit Demon with a shoulder bash, knocking him off his feet. She hit him with a fully charged shot before he landed on the ground, sending him flying. His body crashed to the ground and lied motionless. Samus wondered if that attack did the job, if it finally killed him. She was certain it did, as no human being is capable of surviving that shot at full charge. To her dismay, Demon got back to his feet still full of energy, as if he resurrected.

"HOW?!" She screamed in fury. The man soaked in blood then began to walk towards her, his horn had seemingly become larger than before. He ran at her with inhuman speed and pulled out an MP5 sub-machine gun. He unleashed a storm of bullets at her. She quickly began strafing and returned fire, but too many of the shots hit her, causing critical damage to her suit. The suit slowly began to fall apart, until it was just her and her Zero-Suit. She grabbed her Paralyzer pistol and aimed at him, but he had gotten closer to her than she thought, and he snatched her weapon from her and disassembled it. Now her only firearm was on the ground in pieces, so she went back to close quarters. She went for a high kick to the temple, but Demon blocked and punched her in the gut and then performed a knee strike to her cheek. She recovered and landed two body blows on him, but he grabbed her and performed a hip toss when she went for a third. Now facing the sky, she rolled out of the way from a ground punch that would have crushed her head. She rushed towards him again, but he suddenly punched the ground with his bionic fist again, only this one created a small shockwave that knocked Samus away. She could tell that the fight was not in her favor.

* * *

Snake and the others had finally teleported to the arena. Snake looked to the distance to see Samus fighting Demon, and not doing so well.

"All right here's the plan. You all go find Master Hand and tell him the situation. I'm going to fight Demon in the meantime." Snake said.

"What?! You said yourself, as long as Crazy Hand is backing him he can't be beaten!" Rosalina reminded him.

"I know…but he can't be allowed to escape. I'll keep him busy until Master Hand arrives."

"But Snake-"

As she began speaking, Snake took off towards Demon's direction, making it clear he would not be swayed from his decision.

"Don't worry Rosalina. I'm sure he'll be fine." Peach assured her.

"Yeah! Immortal or not Snake will always give his opponents a run for their money. He's the toughest sonnuva bitch I know." Falco said.

"Alright, let's get moving!" Lucario ordered, and they made haste to Master Hand.

* * *

Samus had continued to fight Demon, but she was now on her last legs. He was landing several hard hitting blows, and she was exhausted. She could barely stay on her feet. It seemed Demon had his fun and was ready to end the fight. He grabbed her by the throat with his Bionic arm and lifted her in the air. He began choking the life out of her.

"I'm happy to say that you've really impressed me with your skills. You can die happy knowing that."

"Fuck you!" Samus managed to curse him despite his strong grip. He simply chuckled at her and began to squeeze harder. Suddenly Snake appeared and rammed his shoulder into Demon, forcing him to release her and knocking him far back. Samus gasped for air as she had her hands and knees on the ground. Snake then helped her back to her feet.

"You'll be okay Samus. Death isn't ready for you yet." He said. She finally caught her breath and looked to him, a small smile grew on her face upon seeing her old friend. Then her focus returned to the situation at hand.

"Snake! What the hell is he? How do we stop him?"

"Well he's just a human like us but unfortunately we can't beat him. At least not yet." He answered.

"He can't be human! I hit him with a fully charged shot and he just got back up!" She explained still in disbelief about that.

"Yes it should've killed him, but as of right now he's practically immortal. He's got Crazy backing him up."

"What?!"

Snake looked back to Demon, who was getting back to his feet. "There's no time to explain! The others are going to find Master Hand, go meet up with them. I'll take over from here."

"But isn't this a losing battle?" She questioned.

"Only if we decide to give up. Now go!"

"Ok…good luck." She bid him farewell and left him to confront his old enemy.

Demon approached Snake, a man he hadn't seen in two decades. "Didn't think you were still around. Not after them casting you out that is. Never the less I'm happy to face you again." He smiled.

"You should've stayed dead, back at the ruins of Outer Heaven. You had served your purpose. A medic acting as a body double for Big Boss." Snake insulted. For once someone actually managed to strike a nerve on Demon Snake.

"I was more than that! I was building a legacy!"

"Big Boss' legacy, not yours. Again that was your purpose. That's why you went rogue at Outer Heaven, went against Big Boss' plan. You wanted to tarnish his legacy and create your own." Snake retorted. Demon frowned at this.

"You of all people should understand. You and your brothers were created because of his legacy. I saved Big Boss' life back in 75'. I saved him from that plane crash! I lost my arm, my eye, and nine years of my life for him! And how does he repay me! He takes away my identity, my memories, and turned me into a pawn to serve his plans while he safely hid from his enemies!" Demon recollected his grudge, clenching his fist in anger.

"I get it, trust me I do. The feeling of not being your own person, of always being under someone's shadow. But even then, you can still write your own story, create your own legacy. But this…this is not the way to do it Medic!"

Demon's frown disappeared and maniacal laughter took its place. "I don't see how it isn't! Big Boss' legacy doesn't exist here! I've been able to make my own mark on history here. People fear me not as Big Boss, but as Demon Snake! My massacre is my legacy, and you will be a part of it!"

Demon ran at Snake like a charging bull. The time for talking was over, but it at least burned some time. He got into his CQC stance and readied himself for battle. Demon attempted to get the first strike with a charging bionic punch but Snake ducked to avoid it and countered with a right cross to Demon's chin. Demon staggered back and Snake went for another punch, but Demon caught his fist and tried to put him in an arm bar. Snake forced himself out of his opponents grasp, but was knocked down by an unexpected clothesline attack. Snake wouldn't allow a follow-up, and swept Demon's legs from under him before getting back up. He put Demon in a head-lock, but Demon resisted to prevent him from getting total control. Demon pushed Snake away from him, and Snake turned back to face his opponent only to be met with a powerful headbutt. Snake retaliated with a headbutt of his own, making the two dizzy from the head damage.

"Take this!" Demon shouted and landed a powerful bionic punch to Snake's chest. It was a hard knockdown, with Snake instantly lying on his back. Snake refused to allow himself to stay on the ground for too long, no matter how hard he was hit. Demon tried the attack once more, only for Snake to catch the punch and put him into a grab, and performed a suplex to Demon. He mounted himself onto Demon and pinned him to the ground. He began to smash his fist repeatedly to the man's skull. Demon eventually managed to force Snake off of him after hitting him with his elbow and pushing him aside. They both were back on their feet and stared intensely at each other, both breathing heavily. A few cuts were visible on Snake's head, bleeding from the cheek and the forehead. They went for a right kick at the same time, and their legs collided with each other. Demon threw a punch but Snake caught it and threw him over his hip. Demon however gracefully rolled after being thrown and was right back to his feet, no damage done. He went to leg sweep Snake, but Snake avoided with a short hop. Snake tried a body blow, but it was blocked. A left hook from Demon missed as Snake ducked. He continued with a combination of strikes, all of which Snake avoided. Snake finally decided to go back on the offensive. He kicked Demon right in the gut. Demon went for a right hook, and Snake slapped his arm away and struck back with two punches to the chest. Demon went for that strong bionic punch once more and missed, with Snake punishing the mistake with a mighty uppercut to the chin. It seemed like time slowed down as Demon ascended before crashing to the floor. Despite the strength of that attack, Snake wasn't surprised when Demon quickly got back up. Worse yet, he had a wicked smile across his face. They began exchanging attacks again. Demon struck Snake in the gut with his knee, and continued with a roundhouse kick to the head. He forced Snake back to his feet and hit him with a punch, a punch, a kick, a kick, and ended with a left uppercut. He stomped on Snake's head, a larger cut formed on his forehead. Snake was in bad shape but still got back up. Demon continued attacking, but Snake began to make a comeback, dodging attacks and countering at the right time.

"You feel it too don't you? The excitement of battle! The thrill of it!" Demon said while attacking. "Most of the others couldn't give me this feeling! They weren't real fighters! They lacked that killer instinct that you and I have as soldiers."

"Fighting and Killing aren't the same thing. These people fought for sport. From their fights, friendships were made, lessons were learned, people could strive for self-improvement. And they had more to their lives then just fighting. But you…your life revolves around it. Killing is the only thing you know. Without conflict you have no purpose. You're pathetic!" Snake snapped at him and struck him with a right hook followed by a left hook. "None of this is glorious! All your actions have only brought death and misery."

Snake landed several more hard hitting blows to his foe. "And I'll make sure you answer FOR ALL OF THEM!" He roared as his left fist smashed the metal horn on Demon's head.

Unexpectedly, Demon screamed in pain from the attack, staggering back and grasping his head. He remembered back at the hospital twenty years ago, the doctor telling him that the metal lodged in his skull can result in severe physical and psychological damage as it was slightly lodged in his brain. And Snake had just punched it.

" _Demon! What's going on! DEMON!"_ He could hear Crazy Hand pleading to him. Tried as he might, Crazy could not heal mental damage. " _God dammit!"_

Demon began seeing ghosts and the voices of those he had killed. For the first time, he felt his sins eating away at him, and he did not like it. He held his head with both hands, looking like he was suffering from a severe headache. In some sense he was. Snake had watched the man break in front of him, now on his knees shaking his head. He was shocked he was able to inflict damage that Crazy apparently couldn't negate. He also didn't expect Crazy to appear, as he teleported in and smacked Snake with his finger.

"I don't know what the hell you did, but you'll pay with your life!" Crazy angrily threatened. Snake got up and readied himself as Crazy approached him. He took out his FAMAS assault rifle and fired away, all 25 bullets hitting the hand. However it was miniscule damage, and Crazy fired a laser from his finger. Snake rolled out of the way of the beam, but couldn't escape from Crazy's punch. Crazy grabbed Snake and held him tightly within his grasp. Tried as he might he couldn't escape.

"You would've been great for my version of Smash Brothers. I would have you with Demon as the poster boys of the show."

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid it would conflict with my schedule." Snake snarked, letting Crazy know he's not going to beg for him.

"I guess you're right. You've got a date with Death and I hear she's pretty picky. Hope you reserved a nice restaurant, you might even score by the end of the night if you're lucky. Good bye Snake." Crazy finished and began squeezing the life out of him. But he then struck from behind with a powerful blow that was capable of knocking him back. He dropped Snake as he was launched. Snake looked up to see Ganondorf had come and hit Crazy with his Warlock Punch and saved him. Ganondorf extended his hand to Snake, and Snake grabbed it and was helped to his feet.

"Hope you're prepared to fight a god." The Gerudo said.

"Well I've been meaning to get that off my bucket list." Snake joked as he prepared himself for battle.

* * *

 **Next up…the finale.**

 **And by the way Metroid-Killer…I think you know the answer to that question from your review.**


	6. Self-Aware

Snake and Ganondorf stood side-by-side in their fighting stances waiting for Crazy to return.

"Look, thanks for saving my ass back there but I have to ask you something." Snake said.

"Make it quick." Ganondorf simply stated.

"Why are you opposing Crazy? He wants to create a world of chaos and conflict, and an entire civilization that thrives on that idea. No offense but that sounds like something right up your alley."

The King of Evil let out a small laugh. "Indeed I would enjoy a world of conflict, but Crazy's methods are a paradox. Like all other people in the past who envisioned a "utopia", his is full of flaws."

"What a shocker." Snake sarcastically responded. "What's your take on it?"

"Crazy doesn't understand the concept of balance. He should understand that our world is already full of conflict as it is. It may not always be violent, but it is conflict. And these conflicts stem from people having a different set of beliefs and desires. I fight Link because we want different things for the world. If we shared the same interest then we'd be allies. If Crazy creates a collective consciousness of people wanting chaos, but complete irradiates people who oppose the idea, then we'd all be allies. We'd have no reason to fight each other. If the world is to have conflict, it needs heroes and villains. It needs people with conflicting beliefs."

"Interesting. Thanks for answering my question. Anyway it looks like he's coming back. The best thing we can do is fight him without getting too close. You got a weapon for that?"

Ganondorf then drew out his massive sword from its sheath. "I'm good to go."

"Good!" Snake said as he pulled out his Stinger missile launcher. "Here he comes! Move!"

The two rolled out of the way as Crazy attempted a rocket punch on them. Snake did a quick turn and blasted the hand with a powerful missile. The explosion staggered Crazy. Ganondorf came from behind and stabbed the hand, followed by repeated slash attacks. Crazy turned to Ganondorf, only to be hit with a throwing knife from Snake, followed by several shots with his SOCOM pistol. Crazy could be heard grunting in pain. He ascended and then smashed his palm to the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked his two opponents back. They got back to their feet, but Crazy suddenly began dropping bombs above them. Crazy was targeting Snake, who broke into a sprint as he avoided the explosions going off behind him. Ganondorf stopped his bombardment by shooting Crazy with a bolt of dark magic.

"This isn't working…must use different tactics." Crazy muttered and teleported away from the other two.

"Running away? That's uncharacteristic for one of the Hands." Ganondorf insulted.

"Not so fast. I don't think he's running. He's got something planned…" Snake said.

Crazy opened his hand and on his palm were the skeletons of all the Koopalings.

"Looks like he got to them too." Snake sighed.

"Well what good are some skeletons in battle?" Ganondorf asked.

Suddenly Crazy crushed the skeletons in his hand, shattering the bones into small, sharp fragments. Then he pointed towards his two foes.

"Oh shit!" Snake cursed realizing what was happening.

"Is he going to…"

"Ganon, we need to haul ass. If we don't then our we'll be shredded by foreign bodies."

"I thought so." Ganon sighed and the two took off in a sprint. Crazy began firing the bone shards towards them with a fire rate of a machine gun. Lucky for Ganondorf, he was dressed with his armor that provide great protection from the shards. A few managed to hit his body but the armor stopped it from going any further. Snake on the other hand wasn't as shielded. He had his Sneaking Suit that at the very least had Kevlar around the torso area but that was about it. He could feel pieces of bone stick into his left arm. He ignored the pain and the two eventually made it to cover.

"You good?" Ganondorf checked in with his teammate. Snake removed the three bone shards from his arm and took a bandage from his first-aid kit and wrapped the marks that were made.

"Yeah…I'm good." Snake said as he finished tending to his injury. "Can't stay behind this fence for long. He's coming."

"I'm aware." The Gerudo replied. "But if we can get back to close range with him then we can put the battle back in our hands. You get what I'm implying?"

"Yeah I got it. Just say the word and we'll jump out." Snake planned. As Ganondorf kept an eye out, Snake took out his 50. Caliber Sniper Rifle and put a clip in.

"That's a big fucking gun you have there." Ganondorf said amazed by the size.

"Well I figured when we hit him, we hit him hard."

"No arguments here." Ganondorf agreed and fully charged a bolt of dark energy in his hand. Crazy Hand was getting closer to the fence they hid behind.

"You idiots should know you can't hide from me!"

"GO!"

Snake and Ganondorf simultaneously jumped out of hiding and attacked the unprepared Hand. A massive bullet and an incredibly powerful dark magic attack hitting the hand in unison. Crazy dropped the bone shards he had and fell to the ground. He was actually bleeding from the attack.

" _FUCK! This won't do! I'm too big of a target!"_ Crazy thought in panic. Then he looked back and saw Demon Snake, who was still on his knees with a thousand yard stare. Crazy then hatched an idea. He got up and rocketed towards Demon, and then disappeared inside of him. He was now in possession of Demon's body.

" _I'm sorry my friend, but until your mind comes back to you I'll have to take control. This is best for both of us."_ Crazy promised.

"Did he just…"

"Yeah…he did." Ganondorf confirmed Snake's suspicions in a grim tone.

Demon's body began glowing with aura, showing Crazy's presence within him.

"Get ready for round two bitch!" Crazy roared and charged at the two. Snake and Ganondorf readied themselves for the next phase of the fight, not looking forward to it at all.

* * *

"That's…that's preposterous!" Master Hand shouted. The others had just finished explaining the situation of Crazy's treason to him and he didn't like it.

"Sir, we understand how you feel. None of us could believe it whenever Snake said it, but there are just too many clues…"

"That's all they are!" Master Hand cut Rosalina off. "Their clues! Coincidences! No concrete evidence to back them up! Unless you can provide me with proof, then this is a ludicrous accusation!"

Lucario had then filled up with rage, and it finally came out. "Just accept it you FUCKING FOOL!" The Pokemon uncharacteristically screamed with anger. Everyone in the room was shocked by Lucario's sudden outburst.

"Wh-What?!" Master Hand was taken aback.

"I'm with Lucario!" Meta Knight spoke out. "Need I remind you that most of the group is fucking dead because of this mad man?! And what the fuck have you been doing to help the situation other than sending most of them to their death?!"

Master Hand was speechless. He hated remembering all the casualties, it filled him with guilt.

"Want to know who did decide to help us! Snake! Somebody who was forced out of this group! A man who has every reason to hate us, to not give a shit about what happens to us! And he didn't hesitate to leave his home in the mountains to help us! Now he is out there, fighting a battle that he knows he can't win, for us! If someone like that is willing to die for us, then what the fuck does that make you?! Our so called "leader"!"

The room grew dead silent, but the tension was so thick you'd need a sword to cut it. Suddenly Samus violently barged into the room, almost knocking the door down.

"Alright you piece of shit! You better listen to what I have to say!" She said to Master Hand, looking at him with eyes burning with rage.

* * *

Back outside the arena, Snake and Ganondorf continued to fight Crazy, who was now merged with Demon. After that happened, the battle began to turn toward's Crazy's favor. His powers combined with Demon's strength actually made Crazy stronger. He had Demon's expertise in CQC, and his magic attacks at his disposal. He was engaging the other two at close range. He shoved Ganondorf away with a magic powered palm strike, and Ganondorf crashed into a wall. Snake rushed towards him to attack, but Crazy pulled out a knife and slashed Snake across the chest, with enough strength to go through the Kevlar vest. Snake shouted in pain from the attack but would not take his focus off of his opponent. Crazy went for another swing but Snake caught his arm. The two began struggling to wrestle the knife from the other. Though he was giving great effort, Snake could feel himself losing his grip. In desperation, he head-butted Crazy which made him release the knife and was staggered. Snake gripped the knife and stabbed it into Crazy's chest. Normally this would be a critical attack, one that would win the fight. But Crazy's magic still allowed for a healing factor. Crazy ripped the knife out of his chest and stabbed Snake. It was aimed for his chest, but Snake had attempted to dodge. He did however get the knife into his shoulder, and left it there.

"FUCK!" Snake screamed as he felt the blade penetrate his flesh. Crazy then blasted him with a magic sphere, knocking him on his back. Crazy walked up to him, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up, high enough where his feet weren't touching the ground.

"You know you can't win this fight! Why bother?!" Crazy asked.

"Because it's better than giving up!" Snake answered. He managed to grab his SOCOM pistol from its holster and started shooting Crazy. Though the bullets couldn't kill Crazy they weren't any less painful. Crazy threw Snake aside, not wanting to continue to get shot point blank. He began charging up a magic attack to kill Snake when he was suddenly impaled from behind by a large sword. He turned to see Ganondorf, who clocked him with a Warlock Punch. Crazy was again launched by the forceful attack.

"Thanks again." Snake expressed his gratitude as he got back on his feet. He then pulled the knife out of his shoulder, letting a small grunt of pain when he did. At this point the two were breathing heavily. They had been fighting for quite some time, Snake especially.

"You know we can't keep doing this. We can't kill him and he'll never run out of energy, but we will." Ganondorf reminded him.

"I know…I know. I guess convincing Master Hand would be a harder task for the others than I thought."

"Ever considered that they might not be able to do it?"

"I have."

"So you're willing to fight to buy time for something that may never come?"

"That's right. Only way this ends for me is Master Hand comes, or I die. If you don't feel the same way, then you can leave. That's fine by me."

Ganondorf chuckled. "I guess the goddesses made a second Triforce of Bravery." He said with a grin. "Well I got myself involved in this, so I'll see it to the end."

"Alright then."

They saw Crazy Hand in the distance, sprinting towards them with visible fury. With no fear they charged at him. They were about to close the gap between them, but before they could strike…

"BROTHER!" A booming voice roared, stopping the three of them on their tracks.

"Uhh…" Crazy nervously looked around. Then Master Hand teleported in with the others.

"So it is true! You're the mastermind behind this whole plot!" Master Hand's voice became angrier by the second. "Get out of that body!"

Crazy Hand ejected himself from Demon Snake's body, causing him to regain control of himself and his mind, but he fell to the ground exhausted.

"Brother! I know this looks bad, but trust me! What I'm trying to do is better for business!" Crazy nervously explained himself.

"Business?! Smash Brothers was never a business! We created Smash Brothers as a sport for the fighters and as a means of entertainment for our people!"

"Yes I know! Entertainment is the key word! It's something that Smash Brothers is lacking."

"What are you talking about?!"

"People who watch Smash Brothers want violence, tension, danger! Smash Brothers has violence, but only a partial amount of tension, and a complete lack of danger." Crazy Hand explained now sounding a lot less nervous and more confident. "We have people using swords, explosives, and weapons in the fights. Those are things that KILL people. But of course, our system grants the fighters protection from death. There's no limbs being severed, no bodies blowing up, not even a simple cut or drop of blood. So I must ask you, where's the danger? Where's the tension both the fighters and the audience can feel in knowing that somebody could lose their life?! It's nowhere…it doesn't exist. Hell even in sanctioned fighting sports like Boxing and Mixed Martial-Arts, someone can get injured, people bleed, and there's even a small chance that one of the fighters can accidentally kill their opponent!"

"You want Smash Brothers to be just death matches? People don't want to watch that! It's disgusting!" Master Hand scoffed.

"That's where you're wrong brother! People may say that don't want to see it, but somewhere, some primitive part of their brain wants to see it. And they enjoy it. In ancient times, the average citizen would go to the Coliseum to see Gladiators kill each other and they loved it!"

"Okay enough! So if that is your plan, what did killing so many of our fighters have to do with it?"

"Well I hate to break this to you brother, but you're terrible when it comes to picking fighters. So many of them are just not gladiator material. We had "cute" little animals, children, a pink alien, a penguin, and so many other cartoonish and foolish looking characters. I wanted to start from scratch, with Demon leading my new generation of fighters. I had originally thought that all of the current fighters weren't warrior material…but today Samus and those two…" He said and pointed to Snake and Ganondorf. "proved me otherwise. Snake especially, and it's no surprise since he's from the same universe as Demon. Yet you and the other pansy fighters voted him out!" Crazy angrily said.

He took a moment to compose himself and continued. "Brother…I really want this world I've envisioned to become a reality. Please, come and help me create it." Crazy sincerely offered to his brother.

"No Crazy! As the protector of this world, I will not allow you to create this world. You either stop right now or I will have to kill you!" Master Hand threatened. Crazy let out an audibly sigh.

"I was afraid that you would say that…" Crazy said and suddenly started glowing.

"What's going on?" Fox asked upon seeing Crazy light up.

"No! Crazy…" Master Hand begged.

"If I can't have the world I want…"

Crazy started glowing with blinding light.

"CRAZY DON'T!"

"THEN YOU CAN'T HAVE YOURS!"

"NOOOOOOO!"

Master Hand quickly grabbed his brother and teleported them both high into the skies. The fighters looked up and then saw a massive explosion.

"OH MY GOD!" Peach shrieked in horror.

"Master…" Snake whispered, just as shocked as everyone else on how the situation played out.

"Their…their gone." Zelda choked up.

"Our leader…our guardian…gone…" Lucario grieved.

"Well at the very least, the last thing he did was save all of us." Ganondorf said.

"No kidding, that explosion would've destroyed the world.

As everyone talked, Snake had been thinking and noticed that there was something still to be resolved.

"Demon!" He shouted. He looked to see that he had disappeared, but his injuries allowed for a trail of blood to mark his movements, which led to the forest.

"Come on! We can't let him get away!" Snake yelled and pulled out his pistol.

* * *

After traversing through the forest for half an hour, they had finally come to a Cliffside. There, Demon was standing near the edge of the cliff, looking down below.

"Demon!" Snake shouted and aimed his pistol at him. Demon slowly turned to face Snake. Oddly there was no look of hostility on his face.

"It's over Snake." Demon said in a disinterested tone of voice. "I finished my role."

"Huh?"

"My role. Crazy Hand had brought me back from the dead with a role for me to play. That role was to carry out his violent fantasies of murder. The bloodier the better." Demon explained his voice still calm. "There are so many ways you could describe my actions. Evil, vile, disgusting, sinister, atrocious…I could go on but you get the idea. But personally, I would describe my actions as…acts of **Heartlessness**."

"Where are you going with this?" Snake asked.

"Snake, it was because of how I had such a low value of human life, how I had no problem taking another life, and how I didn't fear the consequences of my actions that Crazy chose me. He could of did it all himself, but he was afraid. Afraid of Big Brother catching him. So he used me so that he could see those murders, but with no blood one his hands. He loved what I did. He told me to be as violent as possible. Seemed like he got his rocks off from seeing me rip people apart."

Demon took a moment to smoke his cigar, letting out a puff of smoke. "So in the end Crazy was someone who was got a thrill with violence, but wasn't comfortable doing it himself. He's not the only person like that though. While not to the extreme of Crazy Hand, there's a lot of people that love violence from a safe distance. **Watching it** , **Reading it,** whatever suits them. Do you think they're interested in the killer's motivation as to why he kills people? Fuck No! They're just watching or reading for the **mindless deaths** caused by the killer. There's nothing wrong with having violence in fiction, but when an entire story is just based around **mindless killing** …then it's most likely not that great of a story. It's just murder-porn at that point. If it's just about the killing, do you think the reader cares about the plot? No they probably don't. **After the murder stops, the intrigue ends.** You know in those old slasher movies there's usually only one survivor when the killer gets killed? You think many of the viewers ever thought "Man, I wonder how they're going to deal with seeing all of their friends butchered"? I strongly doubt it. Take a look at this situation right now. You all won, but I've killed a massive amount of your friends and now your guardians are dead. What are you going to do after this? What happens then?" He asked Snake.

"We'll keep going, living our lives. Help each other get through the grief and the trauma, and we'll rebuild. Just gotta continue going one day at a time." Snake answered. Demon smiled and took another puff of his cigar. "But what's with all of this strange talk about violence and fiction? Is there something you know?"

"I'm aware Snake. I'm aware of what this is, what's going on. I hope that you can all recover from this, but I'm sorry to say that there are those who won't care, **but they sure as hell enjoyed watching you all suffer.** "

"Who are you talking about?"

"Sorry Snake but that doesn't matter. Anyway like I said, my role is finished. There's no need for me now so…"

Demon quickly snatched Snake's pistol from his hands. He then put the barrel in his own mouth and pulled the trigger, blowing his brains out. The gun fell from his lifeless hands and his body fell backwards, off of the cliff. Demon Snake was no more. Everyone was silent for minutes, not knowing what to say even after the one who had brought them so much pain was now dead.

"I mean I'm glad he's gone, but now I'm fucking confused." Falco admitted.

"You're not the only one I guarantee you." Meta Knight said.

"Well whatever it was that he knew, he took the answers to hell with him. So we shouldn't concern ourselves with it. But he was right about one thing. Just because he's gone, doesn't mean are problems went away. There's still the aftermath, and I'm ready for whatever lies ahead." Snake said confidently.

"We'll be with you all the way!" Rosalina said. Snake turned back to the others, looking at the optimistic sounding woman. "Just like you said, one day at a time."

"Yes. We've suffered great loss over this week, but by working together, we will eventually recover." Lucario smiled.

"Alright…let's go home." Snake said. As they headed back, Samus walked over to Snake's side.

"So those people Demon was talking about. Say they do exist. Do you think they'll care about our recovery process?" She jokingly asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that they won't know what happens next. They'll just have to imagine how things turn out.

* * *

 **And that's the conclusion of this tale. It probably not what you expected, but I hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks to Metroid-Killer for holding the contest, and good luck to the other contestants.**

 **This was a pretty big project for me I must say. I never had to write a story with a deadline. I know I've finished this with a lot of time to spare before the contest deadline, but I was still feeling the pressure during this stories development. Because of it I focused all my effort on to this story, putting Wasteland and Snake the Handyman on hiatus until the time being. But that's not to say this was a hassle to write. I really enjoyed writing this and I'm happy with how it turned out. So if you want to know here's what you can expect from me in the future.**

 **I'll be going back to working on Wasteland and Snake the Handyman. I'll definitely have a Christmas or End of the Year themed chapter posted for Handyman before the end of the year.**

 **I'll probably be doing a collab story with an author who goes by Spawnzilla014. If you like stories that are action packed full of violence and fight-scenes (and on occasion some lemons if you're into that) then you should check his stuff out.**

 **Take it easy everyone.**


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